Even though I squirted my hands with Purel every five minutes and downed mega doses of Vitamin C, I still managed to catch a cold on the flight home from Anaheim. I’m very grateful that I didn’t get sick until after the Conference. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss a thing.
The AASL (American Association of School Librarians) President’s Program was one of the most thought- provoking sessions that I attended. Author/librarian Susan Patron kicked off an emotional discussion on intellectual freedom with co-panelists David Levithan, Catherine Beyers, and Cassandra Barnett. It was good to be reminded that circulation statistics are not everything–that books are meant to be found.
The most entertaining program I attended was ALSC’s Creating Readers Theatre at your Library with Top Quality Children’s Books. It turns out that authors Shannon Hale, Linda Sue Park, M.T. Anderson, and Eric Rohmann can act almost as well as they can write!
I had mixed feelings about the PLA President’s Program featuring Jamie Lee Curtis. I may have misunderstood, but I think Jamie Lee Curtis said that rap music is bad for children. (If so, she obviously hasn’t listened to Skee-Lo’s rendition of The Tale of Mr. Morton.) She won me over, though, when she read us her latest book, Big Words for Little People. She really is a good writer and a great performer.
Rebecca Hickman
Teresa
I hope you are feeling better soon, Rebecca.
Thanks for writing about those programs. It is unfortunate that Ms. Curtis felt the need to paint a broad brush over all rap music. It is probably safe to say that each genre of music has an element that is inappropriate for children. I have not listened to Skee-Lo’s The Tale of Mr. Morton. I’ll give it a listen.
E McGrew
I had problems with the Jamie Lee Curtis presentation as well. However, I didn’t feel like she was bashing all rap music. She basically made a statement that if you listen to a lot of rap music you can hear a lot of things that are not good for children. I’d agree with that. Even the stuff that is “cleaned up” for radio tends to have a lot of nasty things against women just now. So, I don’t think she was bashing the type of music, just a trend that is running through it currently.
I also agree that the reader’s theater session was amazing. I wanted to stay there all day and listen to those authors.